Besides Steve Clinkscale Michigan is also pursuing Roy Manning

Submitted by Ezekiels Creatures on May 9th, 2021 at 8:26 PM

 

It's being reported that Steve Clinkscale is the first coach Michigan went after with the departure of Mo Linguist.  But also they are pursuing Roy Manning, CBs coach at Oklahoma.

 

Roy Manning has brought clear cut improvement wherever he has coached. This is from his bio at Oklahoma's footbal website:

 

Clinkscale, Manning, both seem like good choices.

Anyone have inside information on which is better?

 

 

 

Gimmiedat87

May 9th, 2021 at 8:46 PM ^

I believe he coaches LB but I’m not sure how interchangeable the defense coaches are. My friend who coaches college football told me he’d been contacted. I don’t know if he’s a leading candidate just that they have had contact.

Monkey House

May 9th, 2021 at 8:40 PM ^

Does the AD think bringing in former players will stay when Harbaugh is fired? Not saying Manning wouldn't be a good hire, just seems like a possible plan if JH doesn't work out. 

bsand2053

May 9th, 2021 at 8:54 PM ^

There was clearly an agreement made between Warde and Jim that the staff would get reoriented towards recruiting chops but I doubt it goes deeper than that.  
 

It’s nice for us as fans though, to have some guys who would be good candidates to stay on a new HC’s staff!  Look how much it helped the basketball program when Dre, Saddi and Jon all stuck around 

 

Edit-Someone pointed out that Haynes was not a carryover.  Please downvote/shame me for my dumbassery

LabattsBleu

May 10th, 2021 at 12:28 AM ^

Dre?

Haynes didn't stick around. He was replaced by Eisley. Haynes, luckily, landed on his feet at Maryland.

Saddi is the only BBall coach that was retained. Sanderson stayed and Chris Hunter stayed...Simmons came on as a GA as well.

Saddi wasn't a Michigan grad anyways. Good coaches will be retained, hypothetically, if the new coach feels there's a fit. Whether that coach is a Michigan grad should not matter.

 

bronxblue

May 9th, 2021 at 9:22 PM ^

I'd be surprised if a new coach would retain anyone from the old staff, especially if the last guy was fired.  Maybe an "institution" guy like a Fred Jackson if that made sense, but certainly not a guy who's only been at the school a year or two.  I assume Manning is being contacted because he'd help with recruiting and has some connection to UM, but I doubt it goes any deeper than that in terms of long-term plays.

bsand2053

May 10th, 2021 at 1:02 AM ^

Never said it did go any deeper, just that it offers some security for the fans who want Harbaugh fired (I am not one of those fans at this point).  

Regardless, there are no Fred Jackson's on this staff and a new HC would be foolish to jettison the entire crew.  He's not going to get all his assistants to follow and continuity has its benefits.  If a new guy comes in and doesn't at least try to keep Bellamy and Hart around I'd be pretty upset

Hail to the Vi…

May 9th, 2021 at 9:30 PM ^

I doubt Warde Manuel really has any influence on hiring decisions related to position coaches. He's delegated that responsibility to Harbaugh and ultimately holds him accountable for the results (whether or not he's been too lenient is another conversation). How the sausage is made is ultimately up to Jim so long as it meets the standards of the university.

I think more likely, former players are being contacted because they would be the most probable candidates to reciprocate interest at this point in the off season. It could be pretty difficult to persuade a coach with no ties or vested interest in Michigan to jump ship given both this stage of the off season and Michigan's overall dynamic of the program.

Ezekiels Creatures

May 10th, 2021 at 2:06 AM ^

I'm mostly satisfied with Jim Harbaugh's coaching changes. Though I would have preferred he moved on completely from Josh Gattis. Though moving him to WRs may work out. I don't think Matt Weiss is just the QBs coach. I think he's going to be running more of the offense than a QB coach traditionally does. Weiss is probably ready to be an OC. 

And I was relieved to read that Ryan Osborn is coaching DEs. He turned 3 Star Montez Sweat into a 1st round draft choice. DEs were not fun to watch last year. Hutchison might be a beast this year!

1VaBlue1

May 10th, 2021 at 8:35 AM ^

I don't disagree with you in that Harbaugh will not be fired, unless the team tanks again like it did last year (which I don't see happening).  I am, though, one of the guys that wanted him gone after last season.  I believe we've seen the pinnacle of football heights that he can take us to (2016), but also believe we've seen the deepest depth (last year).  Sadly, the next many years will bring us more 10-3, 9-4 seasons with little hope of being competitive against OSU aside from the occasional serendipitous season.

I hope for far better, because I would LOVE for Harbaugh to succeed here.  But here we are in year 7...  Six years in and we have a pretty good indication of what we'll have going forward.

We're Iowa.

Michigan4Life

May 10th, 2021 at 9:50 AM ^

That does not matter at all. What matters is Warde Manuel effectively lowered the contract base salary and buyout numbers. That gives Manuel the ability to fire him at anytime he wanted to because he won't have to deal with a big buyout money if Michigan doesn't do well next season.

You can give a coach a lifetime extension but that won't matter because they can get fired at anytime for performance reasons.

Rabbit21

May 9th, 2021 at 8:40 PM ^

Manning would be an interesting choice as he would be in his second time with the program and I would be surprised if he came to Michigan from Oklahoma.

UCLA fans don't seem to miss him much, but I wonder if part of that is the Chip Kelly fans trying to blame Manning for Kelly's abject failures with the program.

Personally, I'd rather have Clinkscale just for the "Getting rid of the thorn in the side" factor, but wouldn't hate Manning coming back.  

Hail to the Vi…

May 9th, 2021 at 9:13 PM ^

Manning I think would be a pretty solid choice. At minimum you would think he could do pretty well on the recruiting trail being a younger guy and former player. 

Oklahoma definitely improved defensively and they brought in some pretty solid players in the secondary last year.

Agree with you Clinkscale is option 1a., but if that doesn't work out Manning I think would do well here and would be a great hire at this point in the off season.

bronxblue

May 9th, 2021 at 9:41 PM ^

Yeah, both are intriguing, though from a recruiting standpoint I do wonder if Clinkscale would stick to his Midwest-ish turf or be asked to branch out, as UM already has a number of top recruiters for the same footprint.  Manning hasn't been places for a long time but at least he's had to recruit at schools in the Southwest and West Coast, so in theory he's got some relationships out there.  As far as I can tell Clinkscale has mostly coached and recruited in this region his whole career.  Just interested to see which way they go, as the focus definitely appears to be recruiting first.

Twitch

May 9th, 2021 at 10:22 PM ^

If you look at his profile on 247 he's been in the south plenty having been the primary on recruits from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Mississippi and he's been out west as a primary in Arizona.  He's also been involved in recruits from Louisiana and Kansas so I'd wager branching out is not an issue.

matt1114

May 10th, 2021 at 1:50 PM ^

I'd take Clinkscale. The top players in Michigan should be going to UM. Just looking back at the top 10 players in the state over the years, if we'd been able to keep Kentucky from taking some picks, and even if we got the top 7/10 each year we'd probably be in a much better spot. 

 

While the players didn't turn out like we hoped, 2017 was an amazing class for us. Why? We got 7 of the 10 top players in Michigan. Michigan consistently has a high 4* or 5* each year with plenty of 4 stars that we really need 

bsand2053

May 9th, 2021 at 8:48 PM ^

Interesting.  What region does Manning recruit well?  We all know how well Clink does in Michigan but we’ve got two guys who recruit the state well in Moore and Bellamy 

mpbear14

May 10th, 2021 at 8:19 AM ^

I'll be shocked if Manning coaches at Michigan in the same role he has at Oklahoma under a defensive coordinator that has taken a vested interest in mentoring him.  

Cato June is the more likely option here if we are set on bringing back a former player.  Manning is too good of a coach to join Harbaugh's staff this late IMO.  Harbaugh letting him go in 2015 without so much as an interview was a mistake.


If by a miracle Harbaugh is able to convince Manning to come, it'll be a net gain gain from the Linguist fiasco.